Alert! The longlist for the world’s richest literary prize for a single work of fiction, the International IMPAC Dublin Award, worth €100 000, has been announced - and, as far as BOOK SA can tell, three South Africans find themselves on it.
BOOK SA members Mandla Langa and Annica Foxcroft are joined by expat South African Richard Mason. Their The Lost Colours of the Chameleon, There are Ants in My Sugar and The Lighted Rooms, respectively, are competing with books from the likes of Booker Prize winner Aravind Adiga, perpetual Nobel neglectee Philip Roth and dozens of other authors, who range from the obscure to the highly-esteemed. Last year’s IMPAC winner was Michael Thomas, for his debut novel, Man Gone Down.
The Guardian breaks down this year’s dizzying assembly (see bottom of article for complete longlist):
Aravind Adiga’s Booker prize-winning novel The White Tiger has emerged as an early frontrunner for the Impac Dublin literary award, but the Indian writer will have to see off the likes of Nobel laureates José Saramago and Toni Morrison if he is to take the world’s richest – and most eclectic – literary prize.
The Impac, which sees librarians around the world nominate their favourite titles for the award, has longlisted 156 books this year, spanning 46 countries and 18 languages. Bestselling English-language writers Sebastian Barry and Joseph O’Neill are jostling with the largest number of books in translation ever nominated for the prize, including works by Icelandic crime novelist Arnaldur Indridason, Chinese author Ma Jian and Serbian surrealist Zoran Zivkovic. Evelio Rosero’s Colombian civil war-set The Armies, which won the Independent foreign fiction prize, also makes the running.
Good luck to Mason, Langa (whose book won the Commonwealth Prize - Best Book Africa this year) and Foxcroft on making the next cut!
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